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Epidemiology of severe community onset staphylococcal infections

There has been international concern about the emergence of highly pathogenic community strains of staphylococcus aureus. These strains can cause outbreaks of severe soft tissue infections and life-threatening pneumonias in young and healthy individuals. The surveillance systems that are currently in place are not well designed to estimate the size of the problem. Unpublished work from the UCL Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology suggests that there has been a doubling in the hospital admission rate for skin infections and staphylococcal pneumonias.

In this MRC-funded fellowship, the overall aims are to describe the epidemiology of these severe community onset staphylococcal infections and to investigate the factors underlying the increased admission rate.

Laura Shallcross is the principal investigator. The study team also includes Andrew Hayward and Anne Johnson.

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